1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to autonomous moving working vehicles, and more particularly, to an autonomous moving working vehicle for running all over the working range to carry out working such as cleaning and waxing.
2. Description of the Related Art
(1) First Related Art
As a conventional autonomous moving working vehicle, Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-82601 for example discloses an autonomous moving working vehicle having a rotatable ultrasonic distance measuring sensor and a dead reckoning function for obtaining position coordinates Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, Ymax of obstacles (such as walls) by the ultrasonic distance measuring sensor, and while running the range surrounded by these four points, correcting these four points using the latest data obtained by the ultrasonic distance measuring sensor to search for a running range.
Further, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 5-257533 discloses an autonomous moving working vehicle having a dead reckoning function and a non-contact obstacle sensor. This autonomous moving working vehicle has prescribed information such as a shape of the working region pre-input via a keyboard or the like, but does not have information on obstacles. Accordingly, the vehicle carries out working according to a prescribed regular moving pattern in a region where obstacles are not detected, while in a region where obstacles are detected, it carries out working according to the above-mentioned regular moving pattern within a region where it can avoid the obstacles. More specifically, the vehicle recognizes a lane (hereinafter referred to as a first through path) in which it has been able to run a prescribed distance without detecting obstacles right before an obstacle existing region and a lane (hereinafter referred to as a second through path) in which it has been able to run a prescribed distance without detecting obstacles right behind the obstacle existing region, and recognizes the region surrounded by these two lanes as obstacle existing region. Then, it applies working to an unworked region within the obstacle existing region according to the above-mentioned regular moving pattern from the end point of the lane where it has been able to run a prescribed distance without detecting obstacles right behind the obstacle existing region.
However, the conventional autonomous moving working vehicle disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-82601 determines a cleaning region using the coordinates Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, Ymax and therefore always regards the cleaning region as rectangular region regardless of an actual shape thereof, whereby the area thereof is larger than the actual area, resulting in the need for an additional operation. In addition, searching for an unworked region requires an operation of subtracting a worked region from the above-mentioned rectangular region and therefore the vehicle must store the worked region, whereby memory capacity and operation time are increased with an increased number of obstacles and a complexed shape of the working region. In addition, the vehicle carries out working by running zigzag and making a U-turn when running up against an obstacle, and does not search for an unworked region until it cannot run any more being surrounded by obstacles and thereafter proceeds to the working of the unworked region, whereby it might be required for the vehicle to move a long distance away to the position where it should start the working of the unworked region or to again run the worked region. Therefore, in the case of working such as waxing, and spreading and mopping of antiseptic solution, such re-running on the worked region undesirably degrades the working quality.
Further, the above-mentioned conventional autonomous moving working vehicle disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 5-257533 recognizes an obstacle existing region and an obstacle non-existing region by determining whether or not it has been able to run a prescribed distance without encountering an obstacle, and therefore information on a shape of the working region must be set (taught) before working. Accordingly, troublesome tasks such as premeasurement of the size of the working region must be carried out.
Further, an obstacle in fact seldom corresponds to the pitch of the running lanes of the autonomous moving working vehicle, and therefore a remaining working region is produced between the through path and the obstacle. Accordingly, the vehicle merely carries out the working while simply avoiding obstacles after the first through path and before the second through path without taking the working of the remaining working region into account, producing a remaining working region around the obstacles, in particular, in the vicinity of the sides of the obstacles.
As described above, according to the conventional autonomous moving working vehicles for carrying out working such as floor cleaning while moving on all over the floor, working of such a working region as that being provided with a plurality of obstacles such as shelves and pillars at the wall surface of a room or a hall requires tasks such as map input and teaching, and further, even the autonomous moving working vehicle for automatically determining the size of a room by the distance measuring sensor spends much time in searching for the working region, requires large storage capacity, or the like.
(2) Second Related Art
A cleaning robot for working all over the surface of a designated region is known. Zigzag running is generally employed to control such a cleaning robot. The zigzag running herein means reciprocation in a designated region with a prescribed space between backward and forward paths. The zigzag running is realized by combination of forward moving operation and U-turn operation to the right and left on the plane.
More specifically, the zigzag running includes right zigzag running by which the cleaning robot carries out working to the right (in the direction of the arrow 103) from a working start position 100 to an end position 101 as shown in FIG. 26, and left zigzag running by which it carries out working to the left as shown in FIG. 27. The direction shown by the arrow 103 is hereinafter referred to as a working proceeding direction.
The following method (1) or (2) is used to realize the two kinds of zigzag running.
(1) A user gives instructions such as move forward, make a U-turn, move forward, make a U-turn to the cleaning robot by a remote controller to achieve the zigzag running.
(2) A user inputs the longitudinal length and the transverse length whereby pitch length (the distance between the backward and forward paths in reciprocation) of a U-turn is automatically calculated in consideration of the width by which the cleaning robot can work while moving straight to achieve the zigzag running.
The above method (1) achieves efficient working with a reduced running distance, but a user must input instructions such as move forward and make a U-turn, leading to complex operation.
Meanwhile, the above method (2) fixes a working end position (the position shown by the reference numeral 101 in FIGS. 26 and 27) and therefore cannot efficiently control a moving body.
This gives rise to the problem particularly when such a region formed of two successive rectangular working regions as shown in FIG. 28 is to be subjected to working.
More specifically, after carrying out the first zigzag running from a working start position 100a to an end position 101a, the cleaning robot must move to a start position 100b of the second zigzag running. Such re-running of the already worked region causes a waste of time and battery as well as makes that region dirty.
The present invention is made to solve the above described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a moving apparatus capable of automatically efficiently moving on all over the working region including unknown obstacles according to simple processing without map input, a mass storage memory, and complicated calculation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a moving apparatus capable of moving the whole working region with uniform working quality.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a moving apparatus capable of appropriately controlling a moving body with a simple operation even if an operator has insufficient knowledge.
In order to achieve such objects as described above, a moving apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes a running control unit for achieving zigzag running by repeatedly carrying out control including the steps of detecting presence/absence of an obstacle to running while running in a Y direction, storing the Y coordinate of the detected obstacle, and upon detection of the obstacle, stopping running in the Y direction, moving by a prescribed pitch in an X direction perpendicular to the Y direction and thereafter running in the direction opposite to the Y direction; and a recognizing unit for recognizing, upon running in the Y direction beyond previously stored Y coordinate of the obstacle during zigzag running achieved by the running control unit, presence of a remaining running region between a current running path and the obstacle.
A moving apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention includes a running control unit for repeatedly carrying out zigzag running of running a lane in a first direction, moving by a prescribed pitch in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and thereafter running in the next lane in the direction opposite to the first direction; a measuring unit for measuring a distance up to an obstacle existing in the second direction; and an operation unit for performing an operation of the prescribed pitch employed by the running control unit according to the distance measured by the measuring unit.
A moving apparatus according to a further aspect of the present invention includes a running control unit for repeatedly carrying out zigzag running of running a lane in a first direction, moving by a prescribed pitch in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and thereafter running in the next lane in the direction opposite to the first direction; a setting unit for setting a region where the moving apparatus moves; an input unit for inputting a position where the moving apparatus completes the movement in the set region; and an operation unit for performing an operation of the prescribed pitch employed by the running control unit based on the region set by the setting unit and the position input by the input unit.
Such an invention as described above allows efficient control of a moving apparatus with simple operation, improving operativity as well as achieving appropriate running.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.